(1) Field of the Present Invention
The present invention relates to a stopper structure for a disc drive housing and more particularly to a structure that has an upper cover with a lateral side formed with an inward angle to restrict the disk within the drive housing when there is rotating disc or its broken fragment tend to flying out.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
In computer and media technology, optical disk or the like disk is an excellent medium and data storage means. Data recording and retrieval are generally done by means of a Compact Disk Drive. In the art, a compact disk drive mainly consists of two major parts; one is a data retrieval mechanism which further includes apparatus for supporting the disk and for reading and retrieving data from the disk, and the other one is a control circuitry. The disc drive housing of the present invention relates to the housing of the compact disk drive.
Referring to FIG. 1 for a conventional rotating disc housing of the data retrieval mechanism for a compact disk drive, it consists of a base tray 10, an upper cover 11, a rotating disc 14 and a clamping mechanism 13. A disk 14 operates in an accommodation space formed between the base tray 10 and the upper cover 11. The upper cover 11 functions as a protective lid for the accommodation space and has a lateral side 15 formed as a slanted-seal edge. During operations, the disk 14 is mounted on the turntable 12 inside the base tray 10 and is driven by a driving motor 35. The clamping mechanism 13 is used to anchor the disk 14 on the rotation disc 12.
When the drive is operating, the disk 14 is spinning to perform data retrieval or writing function. Upon an event of unexpected external impact or failure of the clamping mechanism 13, the disk 14 may fly away sideward from the turntable 12 due to clamping defect and rotation inertia, and hit the lateral side 15 of the upper cover 11.
Refer to FIG. 2. When the rotating disk 14 flies away from the turntable 12, it may hit the lateral side 15 of the rotation disc housing with a great impact. Although the disc drive housing serves as a protective cover device, yet the lateral sides of the upper cover 11 and the base tray 10 are still elastic and can be treated as individual cantilevers. The lateral side 15 of the upper cover 11 could be bent upward by the flying disk 14, while the base tray 10 is pushed to bend downward, and an aperture 36 is suddenly formed between the upper cover 11 and the base tray 10. It could result in the disk 14 to be flying out of the aperture 36. In such circumstances, the disk 14 is highly possible to severely harm the user. To prevent the accidents and possible damages mentioned above, an improvement upon the construction of the disc drive housing is needed.
Accordingly, the primary object of the present invention is to provide a stopper structure for the disc drive housing. In the present invention, the upper cover of the disc drive housing has a lateral side characterized by an inward-angle bent shape. When a disk flies incidentally away and hits the lateral side of the upper cover, the impact force can positively distribute to deform the lateral side toward a direction of closing the aperture between the upper cover and the base tray. Hence, the disk can be retained inside the disc drive housing. As a result, harm to end users can be reduced greatly.
The disc drive housing of the present invention includes a base tray for supporting the disk, and an upper cover for protecting and covering the base tray. The base tray and the upper cover together form an internal accommodation space for the disk. In the accommodation space, a turntable for holding the disk and a clamping mechanism for anchoring the disk on the rotation disc are constructed. Below the base tray, a driving motor is included for driving the turntable as well as the disk mounting on the rotation disc. In the disc drive housing, the aperture is formed between the base tray and the upper cover to allow the disk to move in or out of the disc drive housing. The stopper structure of the present invention is located on a lateral side of the upper cover adjacent to the aperture. The lateral side has a predetermined inward-angle tip (inclining towards the center of the disc drive housing). When the disk in the disc drive housing flies outwards and hits the lateral edge, the inward-angle tip can split the impact force into beneficial force components. As a result, the disk can be tilted upwards and moves away from the aperture, or the aperture becomes narrower while the disk hits. Thereby, the disk can be retained in the disc drive housing.
In the present invention, the predetermined inward-angle tip of the stopper may be at any acute angle, but preferably an angle between 5 and 30 degrees.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the lateral side of the stopper structure may further include an end formed a flange jutting inwards for a selected length. The jutting flange is extended in a direction away from the base tray and extended towards the center of the rotation disc housing.
The foregoing, as well as additional objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.